Leadership from the "bottom up"
Published by Dr. Georg Michalik on LinkedIN, 12 October 2015
Leadership from the "bottom up"
Published by Dr. Georg Michalik on LinkedIN, 12 October 2015
Leadership from the bottom will lead to changes in the way we lead and how we help leaders to develop in the future. Will the leader become more of a service provider than a decision maker? How shall the leader make the shift without leaving a vacuum?
Recently I was told the following story: A small consultancy firm hired a young professional, let us call him Mike, for their research department. One part of the job was to use the company`s Client Relationship Management tool. It took him only a few days to make up his mind that the way the tool works could be done in a much better way. Soon Mike addressed the IT firm to change the Source Code in order to make the tool better. He did that completely on his own and by chance his manager found out what was going on.
I don`t know what Mike was thinking or what motivated him, but I can imagine he acted with the very best intention and I think it felt very natural for him, however more alignment is needed. Mike needs to make a conscious decision: can he adapt to working in a less self determined way?
What is the manager`s role in this process? Should he tell Mike directly that he went far beyond his authority, or should he lead and encourage the employee to make the right decision on his own? The latter has the higher probability of keeping motivation up and achieving a lasting change in his behavior.
This leadership challenge is an example of leading from the “bottom up”.
We see leadership needs are changing through changes in employees self- conception.
Leadership from the bottom up requires: